Understanding World of Warcraft Maps

Even if you have only recently started playing World of Warcraft, you'll discover that the world itself is quite huge. This is why you need to take a look at the World of Warcraft maps that can help you figure out where you are and where you need to go. There are several World of Warcraft maps that you should know about and know how to use, and the faster you learn about them, the better off you are going to be when it comes to getting where you need to be. Take a moment to review the maps that are commonly available to you as you play the game.

When you open up the game, assuming that you are using the standard user interface and have not made any modifications, you'll see a small circle in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This small circle will essentially show you what your immediate vicinity looks like. You will see a small blue arrow inside the circle that shows where you are on the map as well as what direction you are pointed in. You can do all your navigation from this small small circle. This map will also allow you to track certain things and the tracking will show up as small yellow dots. Arrows will also appear around the rim of the circle pointing towards party members or large towns that you are near to.

When you click on the map, you will also be able to go to a full screen version of the zone that you are in. When you first enter a zone, the map is utterly blank, showing only the outline and the name of the zone itself, but as you start running around the zone, whether you are on foot or on a mount, you'll be able to explore it and to give names to the areas that are on the map. There are achievements that are available for exploring whole zones or even whole kingdoms. Of all the World of Warcraft maps, this might be the one that you end up using the most.

You may also want the benefit of having the full map up on your screen while you are running around, and this is where your mini-map an come into play. The mini-map can be accessed by pressing CTRL-M on most keyboards, and when you do this, a small transparent map will pop up in your lower right hand corner. You can adjust the transparency of the map with a sliding toggle and though it is quite small, you can track your progress through a zone quite easily.

When you want to make the most of your World of Warcraft maps, you might want to consider getting an addon known as Cartographer, which will unlock all the maps for you as well as showing you what dungeons look like, something that the game does not provide for.

Take a moment to see what your options are going to be and what you need to do to get the results that you need from this World of Warcraft resource!